University of Colorado graduate Aubrey Sacco's disappearance in Nepal in late April hit home with Laura Cornish, a Boulder stylist who loves to travel and recently spent time in Nepal.

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For more information on the search for Aubrey Sacco, visit aubreysacco.com.

Cornish never met 23-year-old Sacco or her family, but as the search continued, she wanted to help. So Cornish organized a fundraiser on Sunday for the family's search efforts at Boulder's Tapestry Salon and Day Spa.

"Her story really stuck with me," said Cornish, who's a stylist there. "You don't have to know somebody to help them."

Sunday's event was expected to draw more than 200 people for haircuts, massages, manicures and other services, with the stylists donating their time. People also bid on silent auction items and bought raffle tickets, baked goods and T-shirts, ribbons and bracelets. The T-shirt design includes a print of one of Aubrey Sacco's self-portraits.

Boulder's Lindsay Unruh, who is one of Cornish's clients, decided to splurge at the fundraiser on a pedicure.

"It's a great cause," she said. "Even though I didn't know Aubrey, I wanted to help out. It could have happened to any one of us. She's someone's daughter, someone's friend."

For Sacco's friends, the event was an opportunity to encourage each other as they talked about a friend described as a free spirit with an adventurous soul.

"There's still hope that she will be found," said Jessica Fein, a Naropa University student who met Sacco at CU. "The best thing is to stay positive and stay with other people who feel the same way."

Jennifer Biernat, Sacco's aunt, also came from Florida to help with the event.

"The support here is just overwhelming," she said. "It's just awesome."

Connie and Paul Sacco, Aubrey's parents, said events like Sunday's fundraiser help keep their spirits up as the search for their daughter continues. Though Aubrey Sacco grew up in Greeley, her parents said she fell in love with Boulder.

Paul Sacco and his oldest son spent five weeks in Nepal starting in May, following his daughter's route and making connections with law enforcement, private rescue groups and local families.

He credited the time he spent in Langtang National Park, where Aubrey Sacco was last seen trekking, with giving him a crucial perspective into where his daughter was in the weeks before she vanished. In May, he found her laptop computer, video camera and journal in the last hotel she is known to have stayed at.

After trekking through miles of Langtang National Park, Paul Sacco has said he doubts his daughter would have fallen into a trailside river. And he thinks that if someone snatched her off a trail, Aubrey is strong enough to survive being a captive. His daughter hasn't been heard from since she had lunch at a hotel near the national park on April 22.

Paul Sacco said he's concerned that the FBI is losing interest in the case and that those in Nepal want it to go away so it doesn't hurt tourism. So the family recently upped the reward to 1 million Nepalese rupees -- about $14,000 -- from the original amount of 100,000 rupees. They're working the Nepalese media to broadcast the information about the new reward.

The family also is still searching for others trekkers who may have seen their daughter before she disappeared.

"She's our object of focus," Paul Sacco said. "There's never a rest until we find her."

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